Superior Court: Du Pont relatives have no standing to contest will

The Superior Court of Pennsylvania has upheld a Delaware County Orphans Court order dismissing a challenge on the will of the late eccentric millionaire murderer John du Pont.

The will bequeaths 80 percent of his estate to Bulgarian wrestler Valentin Jordanov Dimitrov, his wife, Zdravka Moneta Atanosova Dimitrov, and their relatives.

The challenge petition filed last year by John du Pont’s niece and nephew, Beverly A. du Pont Gauggel and William H. du Pont, claimed the named beneficiaries somehow exerted “undue influence” over the late millionaire and coerced him into drafting a new will just months before his death in December 2010.

The niece and nephew argued the “physical and mental condition of (John du Pont) were greatly impaired by illness and infirmity, and … he was not a person of sound mind” at the time the will was executed.

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The petition also claimed the late heir to the du Pont chemical fortune believed in the last few years of his life “that he was variously the Dalai Lama, Jesus Christ and a Russian czar.”

John du Pont was sentenced to 13 to 30 years in 1997 for the 1996 murder of Olympic gold medal winner David Schultz. He was found “guilty but mentally ill,” a condition the petition claims he never recovered from.

But former Delaware County Court of Common Pleas President Judge Joseph Cronin dismissed the challenge for lack of standing, finding that because the niece and nephew were not named in two successive wills going back to 2006, they would not be harmed if the September 2010 will was deemed valid.

A three-judge panel of the Superior Court affirmed that ruling on November 19.

Taras Wochok, longtime attorney for du Pont and executor of the estate, said he was gratified by the court’s decision, but declined further comment on the case.